Fox and the Sentinel get a run on The Weekly

THE ‘Sentinel-Times’ hit the big time this week, on Charlie Pickering’s ‘The Weekly’ program on the ABC, in a segment that went nationwide courtesy of recent South Gippsland arrival, Melbourne comedian Geraldine Hickey.

As a result, the local paper has received goodwill messages from all over Australia, even from overseas.

“You can’t buy publicity like that,” enthused Bass Coast Shire Councillor Ron Bauer in an email.

A Phillip Island local, he was referring as much to the content of the interview, Phillip Island’s elusive fox, as he was the coverage given to Geraldine’s new-found local paper, the ‘Sentinel’.

Originally from Albury, now a resident of Melbourne, the multi-award-winning comedian has recently bought a seaside house, in a popular location in South Gippsland, and she’s clearly getting right into it.

The exchange with Charlie Pickering went something like this:

Pickering: Alright, so as a professional woman, do you follow the news closely?

Hickey: Absolutely, I'm all over the news. I'm across everything. People say God, how can you be a professional woman and be across the news at the same time, like where do you find the time? Well, I'm a professional woman because I follow the news.

Pickering: So, what do you follow? What do you read to keep up with the news - New York Times, The Atlantic, what's your speed?

Hickey: The South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, yeah (cheers).

Pickering: Some fans in the house!

Hickey: Yes, it's my local paper.

Pickering: Right so what's hot in the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times at the moment?

Hickey: The big story this week was there is a fox on Phillip Island (laughter). It's wreaking havoc on like chickens and local wildlife, so you know, people are worried about that, I mean, it is killing and eating chickens.

Pickering: Can I just say, I have some concerns. We’ve got a picture here… I think that Fox might be possessed. I think that might be the problem.

Hickey: It's a possibility. Nobody knows how it got there. They know it didn't come across the bridge because they've got like foxcam up there on the bridge. Yeah, so the fox didn't get picked up. So, it's possible that it swam or by that photo maybe, just came up from the depths of hell.”

The segment included a photo of the newspaper article, complete with an infrared image of the offending fox, still ‘on the run’ by the way.

Ms Hickey, who was the winner of the ‘Melbourne Comedy Festival Award for Most Outstanding Show 2021’ is in Sydney at the moment, playing her ‘Now I've Got A Boat’ show at the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid Festival.

It’s not clear whether the fox and the Sentinel get a run in the show.

Thanks for the publicity Geraldine, we owe you!!

Check it out on ABC iview (from about the 18:13 minute mark of Series 8 Episode 6, you may have to register). Follow the prompts using this link: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/weekly-with-charlie-pickering/series/8/video/LE2111V006S00